Thursday, April 30, 2020



Here for your consideration is a post I recently put up in a local neighborhood forum. What do you think?


Time to allow small livestock?

Good morning neighbors,
As I'm sure many of you know, reports are coming out with increasing frequency, warning about the fracturing and breakdown of our national food supply. I've been following this since March and have been collecting news reports attesting to this. Just this weekend, John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods put an open letter in the New York Times stating "The food supply chain is breaking". Why do I bring this up? I don't want to cause fear or panic, but as I have been following this I have grown increasingly concerned.
The reality is that in a month or two we will likely see food shortages across our country. There are multiple contributing factors stemming from COVID-19 that have created this perfect storm. There is the lack of farm labor due to our consular immigration offices being closed in Mexico. There is the increasing shortage of corn for animal feed stemming from the drop in crude and resulting drop in ethanol demand. There is the closure of large meat processing plants across the U.S. due to illness or fear of disease. As a result, hundreds of thousands of gallons of milk are being poured down the drain, millions of chickens have been euthanized, and cattle and pig herds are being culled. You see, our food supply chain is very finely tuned for safety, efficiency, and profitability. The downside to this is that when one or more legs to that supply table are knocked out, it begins to crumble.
So what can we do? We can't panic. That won't help anyone. We can't just buy our way out of it. You can't press rewind or throw money at crops and herds. I think we need to take a lesson from history. Some of you have probably seen the vintage poster floating around on social media that reads, "Uncle Sam Expects You To Keep Hens and Raise Chickens". That actually comes from an ad put out by the USDA in the World War 1 era. In publications like "Everybody's Poultry Magazine" they called on citizens to raise and keep their own supply of food. I found an ad like this in the February 1918 edition of said magazine. What was going on in 1918? It was World War 1, the war continued to grind on, and the outbreak of Spanish Flu that would claim the lives of thousands was just months away. In that moment of crisis, people planted gardens, raised their own small livestock; simply put, they relied on themselves.
I think now is a time that we need to return to a little bit of that self-reliant and self-responsible spirit. I am trying to do that myself right now. I've put in a vegetable garden and I'd like to raise some small livestock like chickens and rabbits in my back yard. But there is a problem. In the City of Fairfield today, you can't keep small livestock on properties smaller than 3 acres. I think now is the time to change that.
I understand that this is a debated topic in Fairfield. Unfortunately, due to the negligence of one citizen in the past who did not keep their chickens in a responsible way, the freedom of the rest of us has been curtailed. And I understand the need to respect our neighbors. No one wants the nuisance of poorly kept animals. But there are ways to keep animals like chickens, rabbits, and other small livestock that is responsible, respectful, and humane. Just look at cities nearby like Cincinnati, Springfield Township, and others. It can be done. I have emailed and called our city officials. I plan to attend the next council meeting to request an amendment to our city code to allow this. But I don't think one voice is enough. So, I want to know, do you think it is time to allow the responsible and respectful keeping of small animals in the city? What do you think?
If you are interested, please contact your council member. You can find your council member at https://www.fairfield-city.org/655/Wards. Also contact our state representative, Sara Caruthers http://www.ohiohouse.gov/sara-p-carruthers and our senator, Bill Coley https://www.ohiosenate.gov/senators/coley and ask them to pass legislation that would allow this at a state level. My hope is that we can face the challenges ahead and help our neighbors do the same.
Thank you for your consideration, Michael Roe P.S. Here are links to some of the reports about the fracturing and breaking of our food supply:
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